Lewy bodies hallucinations

Dementia with Lewy bodies, which is characterised by clumps of protein that develop inside nerve cells in the brain, accounts for 10%-20% of dementia cases. Cognitive symptoms start with visuospatial and executive functions rather than with memory. Psychiatric and behavioural features, especially hallucinations, sleep disturbances and apathy, are common and often present early in the course of the disease.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This article provides an updated review of the determinants of caregiver burden and depression, with a focus on care demands and especially the differential effects of various neuropsychiatric symptoms or symptom clusters. Moreover, studies on caregivers for frontotemporal and Lewy body dementias were referred to in order to identify differences and similarities with the mainstream literature based largely on Alzheimer caregivers. RECENT FINDINGS: As a group, neuropsychiatric symptoms are most predictive of caregiver burden and depression regardless of dementia diagnosis, but the effects appear to be driven primarily by disruptive behaviors (e...

Patients with Lewy body disease (LBD) frequently experience visual hallucinations (VH), well-formed images perceived without the presence of real stimuli. The structural and functional brain mechanisms underlying VH in LBD are still unclear. The present review summarises the current literature on the neural correlates of VH in LBD, namely Parkinson's disease (PD), and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). Following a systematic literature search, 56 neuroimaging studies of VH in PD and DLB were critically reviewed and evaluated for quality assessment...

Disease with Lewy bodies or dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), particularly at the prodromal stage, is a complex disease to diagnose because of different clinical beginnings and variable paths in terms of clinical expression. Thus DLB can be entcountered in different input modes: mild cognitive impairment, depression, acute behavioral disorders, confusion and delirium, or sleep disorders. In the aim to better diagnose the disease, should be sought obviously to search for the key symptoms: fluctuations, hallucinations, extra-pyramidal syndrome, and REM sleep behavior disorder...

Visual hallucinations are a common, distressing, and disabling symptom of Lewy body and other diseases. Current models suggest that interactions in internal cognitive processes generate hallucinations. However, these neglect external factors. Pareidolic illusions are an experimental analogue of hallucinations. They are easily induced in Lewy body disease, have similar content to spontaneous hallucinations, and respond to cholinesterase inhibitors in the same way. We used a primed pareidolia task with hallucinating participants with Lewy body disorders (n = 16), non-hallucinating participants with Lewy body disorders (n = 19), and healthy controls (n = 20)...

OBJECTIVE: Patients with Lewy body disease develop a variety of psychotic and misperception symptoms, including visual hallucinations and delusions, as well as 'minor hallucinations', that is, a sense of presence, passage hallucinations and visual illusions. Although these symptoms have been suggested to have common underlying mechanisms, the commonalities and differences among them have not been systematically investigated at the neural level. METHODS: Sixty-seven patients with Parkinson's disease underwent neuropsychological and behavioural assessments, volumetric MRI and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET)...

We herein report a 65-year-old man demonstrating dementia with Lewy bodies who first presented with Bálint's syndrome. Two years later, a mild cognitive impairment was noted. From three years after onset, he developed progressive parkinsonism, visual hallucination, and autonomic dysfunction, in line with the deterioration of the cognitive function. Single photon emission computed tomography with a (99m)Tc-ethylcysteinate dimer performed two years after onset revealed hypoperfusion in the restricted area of the bilateral superior parietal lobule, which extended to the lateral occipital cortices within two years...

BACKGROUND: Dementia is generally characterized by cognitive impairment that can be accompanied by psychotic symptoms; for example, visual hallucinations are a core feature of dementia with Lewy bodies, and delusions are often seen in Alzheimer's disease. However, for behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), studies on the broad spectrum of psychotic symptoms are still lacking. The aim of this study was to systematically and prospectively subtype the wide spectrum of psychotic symptoms in probable and definite bvFTD...

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Hypersomnia is common in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). We assessed the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of armodafinil for hypersomnia associated with DLB. METHODS: We performed a 12-week pilot trial of armodafinil therapy (125-250 mg orally daily) in DLB outpatients with hypersomnia. The patients underwent neurologic examinations, a neuropsychological battery, laboratory testing, electrocardiography, and polysomnography. Efficacy was assessed at 2, 4, 8, and 12 weeks...

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is the second most common neurodegenerative dementia. The accurate diagnosis is often possible only by neuropathological examination. The morphologic hallmarks are the presence of α-synuclein-rich Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites, identical to those seen in Parkinson's disease (PD) and Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD). Neurotransmitter deficits, synaptic and ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) dysfunction play major role in the pathomechanism. Characteristic symptoms are cognitive fluctuation, parkinsonism and visual hallucinations...

OBJECTIVE: Visual hallucinations (VHs) are among the most striking features of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). We investigated gender differences in the association and presentation of VHs in DLB. METHODS: A cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from a prospective, longitudinal study on dementia was performed. Cumulative frequency, 1-month frequency, and phenomenology of VHs were summarized and compared between female and male patients with DLB. Gender differences in the factors associated with VHs were investigated in patients with and without hallucinations...

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is the second most common subtype of degenerative dementia. To our knowledge, available information about the clinical features of DLB in China remains limited. Our study therefore aimed to address this issue. Thirty-seven Chinese patients with probable DLB were recruited for this study. All subjects underwent neuropsychological assessment by trained neurologists, as well as undergoing MRI, 11C-PIB PET scans for Aβ deposition and 18F-FDG PET scans for regional cerebral glucose metabolism...

BACKGROUND: Symptoms of psychosis is one of the common clinical manifestations of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the pathophysiology behind psychosis is unknown. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between Apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype, Lewy body pathology, and psychosis in AD. METHOD: The data was obtained from the National Alzheimer's disease Coordinating Centre (NACC), using the Uniform Data Set and the Neuropathology Data Set...

OBJECTIVE: Patients with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) often experience visual hallucinations, which are related to decreased quality of life for patients and increased caregiver distress. The pathologic changes that contribute to visual hallucinations are not known, but several hypotheses implicate deficient attentional processing. The superior colliculus has a role in visual attention and planning eye movements and has been directly implicated in several models of visual hallucinations...

Pareidolias are visual illusions of meaningful objects, such as faces and animals, that arise from ambiguous forms embedded in visual scenes. Pareidolias and visual hallucinations have been suggested to have a common underlying neural mechanism in patients with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). The aim of the present study was to find an externally observable physiological indicator of pareidolias. Using a pareidolia test developed by Uchiyama and colleagues, we evoked pareidolias in patients with DLB and recorded the resultant changes in the diameters of their pupil...

Dementia can occur in a substantial number of patients with Parkinson's disease with a point prevalence close to 30%. The cognitive profile is characterized by predominant deficits in executive, visuospatial functions, attention and memory. Behavioral symptoms are frequent such as apathy, visual hallucinations and delusions. The most prominent associated pathology is Lewy body-type and biochemical deficit is cholinergic. Placebo-controlled randomized trials with cholinesterase inhibitors demonstrated modest but significant benefits in cognition, behavioral symptoms and global functions...

BACKGROUND: Complex visual hallucinations occur in 70%-80% of dementia with Lewy bodies patients and significantly affect well-being. Despite the prevalence of visual hallucinations in dementia with Lewy bodies, the neuropathological basis of this phenomenon is poorly understood. The pulvinar nucleus of the thalamus has not previously been neuropathologically examined, but has been linked to visual hallucinations in dementia with Lewy bodies. The objective of this study was to investigate whether neuropathological or morphometric changes occur in the pulvinar nucleus in dementia with Lewy bodies cases that may contribute to visual hallucinations...

BACKGROUND: Neuropsychiatric symptoms are common manifestations of Alzheimer's disease (AD). A number of studies have targeted psychosis, i.e., hallucinations and delusions in AD, but few have assessed agitation/aggression in AD. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the risk factors and pathological substrates associated with presence [A(+)] and absence [A(-)] of agitation/aggression (A) in autopsy-confirmed AD. METHODS: Data was collected from the UDS data as of 2015 on the NACC database...

OBJECTIVE: Since the clinical symptoms of different types of dementia frequently overlap, especially in the earlier stages at onset, it is difficult to distinguish dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) from other neurodegenerative dementias based on their clinical manifestations alone. Nuclear medicine imaging has been reported as a high-value index for the objective evaluation and diagnosis of DLB. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether nuclear medicine imaging findings may yield core features to be added to the diagnosis of DLB...